Max Asher Movies

One of the funniest, most sharply paced comedies of the 1930s, and perhaps the best of all of Harold Lloyd's talkies, The Milky Way was based on the Broadway play by Lynn Root and Harry Clork. Lloyd plays Burleigh Sullivan, a mild-mannered milkman who intercedes one night when his sister Mae (Helen Mack) is being accosted on the street by two obnoxious drunks -- they turn their wrath on him, his sister runs for help, and when she returns less than a minute later, both men are out cold on the pavement, with Burleigh standing over them. As one of them, Speed MacFarland (William Gargan), is the world's middleweight boxing champion, and the other, Spider Schultz (Lionel Stander), is his sparring partner, Burleigh makes the front page of every newspaper in New York. McFarland's manager, Gabby Sloan (Adolphe Menjou), has to figure out how to salvage the champ's career, but first he has to figure out exactly what happened, since both fighters were too drunk to remember anything about it. It turns out that Sullivan couldn't beat an egg, but he is good at one thing -- ducking. He can dodge any punch, and the two fighters knocked each other out in the process of trying to pummel him. What's more, on hearing this, they're so angry that Schultz accidentally knocks MacFarland out again, just ahead of the press' arrival, and the little milkman is given credit once more by the reporters for decking the champ. Burleigh loves the attention, even though he never claims to have hit anyone. Meanwhile, Sloan comes up with a way of salvaging his fighter's career, and convinces Burleigh to go along with it for a promised cash sum -- all Burleigh has to do is get in the ring in six fights, to build up his standing and reputation, and finish his "career" in a fight with MacFarland, who will win. In the meantime, complications arise when MacFarland falls in love with Burleigh's sister, while Burleigh himself meets and falls in love with Polly Pringle (Dorothy Wilson), a helpful neighbor. Gabby, Spider, and Speed also discover that turning tiny, wiry Burleigh Sullivan into something that even looks like a fighter is easier said than done -- all of his fights have to be fixed (and then some) behind his back to make his victories look remotely genuine. Finally, after starting to believe his own publicity, and then discovering that the fights were fixed, Burleigh goes through with the final match-up against MacFarland, the culmination of a comedy of errors involving horses, foals, and a wild chase to the arena. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a fighter's fiancee refuses to marry him until he can overcome his insane jealousy. He does and they marry. The jealousy resurfaces when he finds his wife and her boss in a hotel room. He goes mad with rage and kills her boss. His wife is blamed for the killing. Just before the verdict is announced, the guilt-ridden man confesses and himself receives the death-penalty. Time passes and his finally hour arrives. He asks the attending priest to offer him a 10-count. Just as the priest hits nine, his voice becomes that of a referee and the boxer is seen slowly awakening from being knocked on conscious during a fight. The whole story was but a dream. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A semi-sequel to Tom Mix's 1932 Destry Rides Again, Rider of Death Valley finds Mix protecting the gold-mine claim of little Edith Fellows. Fellows' father has met his end at the hands of villain Fred Kohler. Kohler confronts Mix in the wastes of Death Valley, hoping to leave Mix to perish beneath the merciless sun. In a climax reminiscent of Erich Von Stroheim's Greed, both men struggle over a half-empty canteen of water, as leading lady Lois Wilson looks on helplessly. Rider of Death Valley was the second of silent western hero Tom Mix's talking features for Universal, though it was released fourth. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"Trigger Tricks", wrote "B"-western historian William K. Everson, "may well have set a record as the most talkative talkie western ever made." Hoot Gibson stars as an easygoing cowpoke who becomes a fightin' fool in his efforts to learn the identity of his brother's murder. While working as a hired gun for a group of cattlemen, Gibson falls in love with Betty Dawley (Sally Eilers), the owner of a sheep ranch. Switching his allegiance to Eilers, our hero discovers that one of the cattlemen was the guy who knocked off his brother. Just so no one forgets that this is an all-talking picture, the plot is resolved when Gibson uses a trick phonograph record to trap the killer. Trigger Tricks was the second of two 1930 westerns teaming Hoot Gibson with his future wife Sally Eilers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Not a remake of the pre-1920 film of the same name, The Kid's Clever was Glenn Tryon's last silent vehicle; he would pursue a brief talkie acting career before going behind the cameras as a producer. On this occasion, Tryon plays Bugs Raymond, a would-be inventor who has developed a car that runs without gasoline or any other kind of fuel. Through the auspices of Ruth Decker (Kathryn Crawford), daughter of automobile magnate John Decker (Russell Simpson), Bugs is able to stage a demonstration of his invention. The test run goes disastrously wrong, but it turns out that this is the handiwork of Bug's crooked rival Ashton Steele (Lloyd Whitlock). Things are set aright when Bugs and Ruth virtually kidnap Decker and force him to take another test ride -- this one a smashing success. Black comedian Stepin Fetchit is seen in a tiny role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Burning Up Broadway contains no burning and precious little Broadway. Small-town hero Ernest Hilliard decides to take in the floor show at a speakeasy owned by rumrunner Robert Frazier. When Hilliard takes one look at chorus girl Helene Costello, he immediately falls in love. Frazier doesn't cotton to this and pops Hilliard one in the nose. But this is hardly the end of the story: Soon afterward, Hilliard is blamed for a holdup masterminded by the crooks. It is at this point that heroine Costello steps forward, reveals herself to be a U.S. revenue agent, and takes charge of the case. Even less believable than this plot development is the last-minute revelation that Frazier is likewise a government operative who has been working with Costello all along! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Thanks to constant exposure in excerpt form in scores of silent-movie compilations, Play Safe is the best-known of the Monty Banks comedies. Banks plays a dapper little doofus who tries to rescue heiress Virginia Cragg (Virginia Lee Corbin) from the evil machinations of crooked estate trustee Silas Scott (Charles Mailes). The film comes to a heart-pounding climax as Virginia is kidnapped by Scott's minions and spirited off to a freight train. Banks mans a fruit wagon, gives chase after the villains, and ultimately boards the train, leading to a spectacular slapstick setpiece in which both hero and heroine narrowly escape death at every twist and turn. The justly famous runaway-train finale was later released separately as the two-reeler Chasing Choo-Choos. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on Peter B. Kyne's Tidy Toreador, this fairly outrageous Western romp featured Universal's lackadaisical cowboy Hoot Gibson as Billy Halen, foreman of "Pop" Tully's (Otis Harlan) Peaceful Valley Ranch. Suffering a bad case of poison ivy, Billy finds not only relief but an improved appearance in mud collected from a nearby marsh. Jasper Thornby (Frank Beal) hears of the miracle mud, which also promises to improve the appearance of the wearer, and attempts to buy Tully's ranch. The old man declines, and Jasper instead purchases the mortgage, ordering Pop to pay or get out. A plan by Thornby's secretary (Edward Coxen) to kidnap Billy fails, and the cowpoke-turned-entrepreneur instead sells his patent medicine to a rival druggist, thus earning enough money to save Pop Tully's ranch. Appearing as the villain's innocent ward is Sally Rand, the future "fan dancer." A WAMPAS Baby Star of 1927, Rand had enjoyed little success in films when she discovered her lucrative second career during the 1932 Chicago World's Fair. The rest, as they say, is show business history. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Two of the best-looking human beings in Hollywood, Glenn Tryon and Patsy Ruth Miller, headed the cast of Universal's Painting the Town. In his first starring role, Tryon is cast as bucolic inventor Hector Whitmore, who falls for flirtatious city gal Patsy Deveau (Miller). Misinterpreting her fluttering eyelashes as a sign of true and lasting love, Hector follows Patsy to New York, much to the dismay of the girl's wealthy fiance. After a series of setbacks, Hector strikes it rich when his latest invention -- an auto motor that can do 150 miles per hour -- is adopted by the Manhattan fire and police departments (our hero cinches the sale by taking an auto-company representative on a wild and perilous ride through the streets of Gotham). Realizing that there's more to the bumptious Hector than meets the eye, Patsy falls in love with the boy for real. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Three of Hollywood's more enterprising women created this sentimental treatise on sin and redemption: Mrs. Wallace Reid (the former actress Dorothy Davenport) produced and co-directed (with Walter Lang) and Dorothy Arzner's screenplay was based on a story by influential journalist Adela Rogers St. Johns. Priscilla Bonner starred as Gabrielle Darley, a real-life prostitute acquitted of murdering her procurer in 1917. Left in a New Orleans brothel by a bounder she mistakenly believed to be her fiancé, Gabrielle tracks down the man (Carl Miller) in a Los Angeles jewelry shop and kills him in cold blood. Immediately regretting her brutal act, Gabrielle is resigned to her fate when the jury surprisingly returns a verdict of not guilty. A free woman, Gabrielle wants to change her wayward life by becoming a nurse, but is instead invited to live in the palatial Wilshire Boulevard estate of Mrs. Fontaine (Virginia Pearson). With Freddy the chauffeur (Theodore Von Eltz) as her only ally, Gabrielle is cruelly paraded in front of Mrs. Fontaine's society friends, some of whom "have skipped a matinee to see you." Tiring of the notoriety quickly enough, Mrs. Fontaine arranges for an interview with the local hospital, knowing full well that Gabrielle's sordid past will prohibit her ever becoming a nurse. Distraught and penniless, Gabrielle returns to New Orleans, never realizing that Freddy is desperately searching for her. Chased by a pimp in the French Quarter, the exhausted girl runs out into the crowded street and is hit by a passing car. While recovering in the hospital, she fortuitously learns that the hospital needs personnel due to the devastating influenza epidemic and is soon employed as a cleaning woman. It is in the hospital where she is finally found by Freddy as he arrives with soldiers wounded overseas. Despite being shipped off to fight the war in Europe the following day, the former chauffeur vows to return and make Gabrielle his wife. A huge box-office success, The Red Kimono ended up nearly bankrupting Mrs. Reid when the real Gabrielle Darley sued for libel. In the end, Darley won a huge settlement that included the Beverly Hills home which Reid had shared with her late husband, 1910s matinee-idol Wallace Reid. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The wooden performances by a usually fine cast of players suggest that the script to this melodrama -- based on the poem The Spell of the Yukon by Robert W. Service -- is to blame. Barbara LaMarr plays "the lady known as Lou," who is stuck performing in a divey South American cabaret where her husband, Jim (Percy Marmont), plays piano. When "Dangerous Dan" McGrew (Lew Cody) promises to put her name in lights on Broadway, Lou takes off with him, hoping to make enough money to send for Jim and their little boy (Philippe deLacy). Jim follows and catches up with McGrew in a New York nightclub. The two men fight it out and the place catches fire. Jim only narrowly escapes from the flames. McGrew takes Lou up to an Alaskan saloon, where she lures gamblers to his games. Jim shows up in Alaska and finally gives McGrew the fatal shot he deserves. When he discovers that Lou has been faithful to him this whole time, the couple is reunited. Service's poem was filmed once before, in 1915. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Eva Novak and William Fairbanks co-star in this bucolic melodrama set in the Bluegrass State. A young Kentucky woman rides a horse to victory in the big race after the regular jockey is the victim of foul play. Lloyd Whitlock, Lydia Knott, Meta Sterling, and Max Asher also appear. Asher provided comedy relief that may be deemed politically incorrect at the approach of the 21st century. Southern audiences of the time found the portrayals of blacks having too much freedom questionable if not objectionable. Sixty years after the Civil War, many Southerners were still bitter over the Confederate defeat and continued to target blacks as the reasons for their social and economic troubles. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide